It’s also run by the hawker-owners themselves, Zhang Youzhu, 56, and Zhao Guilian, 56, who moved to Singapore from Nanjing in 1998. Both of them worked as chefs back in Nanjing, with Zhang starting his culinary career at just 19.
Zhao told 8days.sg that they decided to open this new branch because their son “wants to inherit the business now that he’s old enough”, adding that “it’s quite tiring (for Youzhu) to run Zhang Ji as he’s getting older”.
As such, the couple and their son, Zhang Liangchen, 28, currently shuttle between both shops, with father-and-son typically helming one shop each. Though they have hired cooks to help out at their restaurant, Zhou said she and her husband remain the main chefs at both outlets.
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Compared to the hawker outlet, Zhang Ji’s eatery offers four new soup dishes and three new cold dishes.
All the dishes at the hawker stall are offered here, albeit at higher prices. While we haven’t tried it ourselves, patrons rave about Zhang Ji’s steamed mini buns (aka xiao long bao), which is S$6.80 here instead of S$5, and crispy pan-fried dumplings, which go for S$9.80 instead of S$7.50.